saturday night and the moon is out

[feel_human]

Tucked away off the road in Bon Temps, there's a road house. Warm light spills from its windows, and the sound of a jukebox playing drifts out into the muggy Louisiana night. The regular assortment of trucks and Hail-Mary-please-keep-this-lemon-goin'-just-a-little-longer cars sit in the dirt parking lot; what amounts to about half the town's small population... or, at least, of those of the 'drinking age and above' persuasion.

Inside, it's a bar of the type scattered all across the American South: homey, no-nonsense. Booths and tables. A man in a plaid flannel shirt wiping the bar; a crossdresser in the kitchen singing Gospel hymns and rolling his hips in time with the words just to scandalize the prep cook. A handful of waitresses, bustling about.

Sookie makes her way briskly through it all, a tray balanced on her palm and her eyes kept stubbornly front, as voices swarm around her. Aloud, and... less so.

...I’m just going to have one beer tonight Jesus one beer that’s all...

...better not gripe about me eating fries not after what I did for him last night...

...I cannot wait to get the hell out of this podunk town...

 

 "Well, make sure you do, and before it’s too late," she responds, thoughtless, to the young man. "Because every year you wait? You just get more and more stuck here. Believe me, I know."

He stares at her. So do his parents.

So does the other table. And she realizes, too little too late, that he hadn't said that out loud, not at all. She laughs, uncomfortable. "I’ll get y'all some ketchup," she says, brightly, and flees, ponytail swinging against the nape of her neck as she goes.

Stupid, Sookie, she chides herself. Stupid, stupid, stupid.

 

Comments

[gavemea_45]

"Maybe a little." He smiles down at her. "Why don't I take you up to bed and stay with you until you fall asleep?"

[feel_human]

Her eyes lighten and she smiles back, then lifts her hand and carefully brushes his hair off his brow.

"Okay," she murmurs. "That sounds nice."

[gavemea_45]

"Give me just a second." Sam sets her back in her chair and gets up to put their mugs in the sink. He takes the pan from the stove and puts it there as well, then scoops her back up out of her chair and gives her a quick smile before heading for the stairs.

[feel_human]

She wrinkles her nose at him in a smile and puts her arms around his neck, amused and charmed in equal measure.

Tina's already asleep on her bed when they reach her door, a soft circle of fur at the foot of the mattress, curled up on Sookie's neat counterpane. Sookie looks at her bed, and the frame at both head and foot, then looks at Sam, dubious. "You're gonna have to fold in half," she whispers.

[gavemea_45]

He chuckles. "We'll see, I guess." Sam puts one knee on the bed and leans over to set her down lightly.

[feel_human]

Tina makes an annoyed sound and jumps off the bed, indignant, and Sookie has to swallow her giggles as Sam sets her down into her pillow. "Come here," she whispers, and draws him down to her.

[gavemea_45]

He has to bend his legs back at the knee, but he manages to curl up comfortably enough beside her, and wraps one arm around her.

"Hi," he whispers.

[feel_human]

"Hi."

She shifts closer to him and slips an arm over his side. "You sure you're comfortable enough?"

[gavemea_45]

"I'm good," he assures her. "You?"

[feel_human]

"Uh-huh."

She lifts her hand to stroke over his hair, lightly, smiling to see him there on her other pillow. "Don't go anywhere 'til I fall asleep, okay?"

The low murmur of his thoughts is almost soothing, like the sound of rain on the tin roof, or wind through the trees outside. And she needs soothing, tonight.

[gavemea_45]

"I won't," he says, softly, staying still while she pets him. "I'll stay right here until you do."

[feel_human]

"Okay," she whispers, and leans forward to kiss him, then pulls her sheet up over herself.

"Good night, Sam."

[gavemea_45]

"Good night, Sookie."

He presses a gentle kiss to her forehead and strokes his hand over her back, then watches her as she closes her eyes.

The faint breeze from outside stirs the curtains, and the sound of distant night-calling birds and insects hums on the air. Sam listens to it while Sookie's breathing deepens, never noticing how his own slows to match.

He doesn't even notice when his own eyes close.